


Enucleation

by OctoRabbit (FeralFighter)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood, Eye Trauma, Homeless AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 18:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13530060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeralFighter/pseuds/OctoRabbit
Summary: Life can be a cruel heartless mistress, always waiting for the right moment to sucker punch, times like these you have to grit your teeth and deal what you've been given to get on by





	Enucleation

**Author's Note:**

> *Rises from the dead*  
> This fic is old... And I mean shortly after s2 old that I stopped working on because I hated it, so it's amazing what happens when you leave something for nearly a year and look back with fresh eyes and see reason to finish

To say Shiro was chuffed was an understatement. After running himself ragged from working long hours at 3 different jobs for the last couple weeks, and finally getting paid after suspiciously all 3 of his bosses had to delay his pay for god only knows why, he was eager to meet up with Keith back at their room with good news to hopefully boost his mood.

He knew how much the younger man was struggling lately, it was difficult enough for him to hold a job with some of his behavioural issues (as seemed to be the reoccuring complaint whenever Keith got past the interviews an onto a trial run), let alone a job that wasn't temporary and leave him back at square 1 after a couple weeks or months. Shiro would frequently insist that he needs to keep trying whenever Keith got particularly discouraged. Constantly job hunting, no matter how much it can drag down someone's moral, was still better than some of the other alternatives...

Weaving his way through the streets, and bearing through the chilly night air that bit through his worn clothes, Shiro quickly stopped by a McDonald's to grab dinner before eventually made it back to the motel they were staying at.

It was definitely a place that left a lot to be desired; it was old and rundown with not much care for maintenance. The rooms were dirty, Keith actually found a live cockroach in their bed and a used condom floating in the toilet on the first night they stayed here, but a bed was still a bed, the tiny shower had hot water, and it was still 4 walls and a roof over their heads to protect them from the unforgiving wrath of mother nature as it crept ever closer to winter. It is an absolute shithole, but it's the best they could do on their budget.

The lights were on in their room, indicating Keith was back. Using his hand not possessing the takeout paper bags and cup tray he reached for the room key, it was when he got closer to the door that he felt something sticky under his shoe. Shiro didn't think too much of it until he saw whatever he was stepping in seemed to have splattered onto the cream colour door that accentuated the deep red that definitely wasn't there this morning.

"Oh no..." Shiro felt ice through his veins at the sight, frantically trying to insert the key into the handle and busted into the room the second it unlocked where there was a spotty trail of blood leading from the entry to the bathroom. "KEITH?"

"Shiro?... Fuck. Don't come in!" Came a very pained and panicked response.

Ignoring the command, Shiro dumped the food and drinks on the table before rushing into the bathroom. The sight in front of him literally stopped his breathing for a moment.

A splattered mess of blood on the floor and basin, a rather pale looking Keith was perched on one of the chairs he took from the bedroom to sit on, absolutely drenched in dark red, in a similar state to the stained damp cloth he held with a shaky hand over his eye. The man looked back at Shiro looking absolutely terrified.

"Oh my god, Keith!" He managed to wheeze out before rushing over, the younger man shrunk back slightly as he approached causing Shiro to pause and be wary of his actions. "W-what happened?"

Keith's one dark blue eye instantly diverted contact, a grim expression on his face that the older always associated with guilt.

"Keith."

"It's my fault, I deserve this."

He didn't like that answer. "Keith." Shiro pressed more firmly.

Keith sighed loudly, knowing there was no way he could get out of this.

"The job interview didn't go to plan, no surprise there." Hand clenched the cloth tighter as he spat out the news, his eye still refrained from looking at Shiro, knowing there'd be a look of disappointment. "I didn't take it too well; here you are juggling 3 jobs just to afford food and cover the room expenses, and all I do is leech off you and keep fucking up job opportunities. So I was mad and didn't want to come back empty handed..."

"Oh Keith, no." He couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice, he knew where this was going.

"I found this guy; filthy rich by the way he acted and was flaunting his money all over the place, and it wasn't like he was going to miss a couple notes-" He paused to finally look up at Shiro and ah yes, there's that look of utter disappointment he predicted. "I think my pickpocketing skills are getting rusty, or that dick is way more aware than he looked because he caught me out, and next thing I know the psycho pulled out a pocket knife and managed to land a hit..."

For a moment there was nothing but deafening silence, Keith swallowed nervously knowing the older was judging him for his actions. Finally Shiro broke the silence with a loud sigh and moved closer.

"Can I take a look?"

Keith hesitated for a second before lowering the cloth from his eye and handed it over. With a quick rinse from the tap, Shiro did his best to wipe away the excess blood and audibly hissing when he saw the large slash across his eye.

"That doesn't look good... are you feeling okay?"

"Been feeling dizzy for a little while now.... also feeling a bit sick."

"Can you open your eye."

With a few attempts and not getting further than a twitching eyelid, Keith shook his head.

"Shit. I think we need to get you to a hospital."

A dark blue eye widened, "What. N-no! We can't afford that!"

Shiro scoffed in disbelief from what just heard. "Do you want to lose your eye?!"

"I'd rather lose an eye than be stuck with a medical bill we can't even afford."

"You can't be serious. You need stitches Kei-"

"Listen! I'd rather have the money to put food in our bellies, and be in a place that'll keep us warm during winter. This-" Keith pointed to his injured eye, "I brought this on myself and I'll have to live with it, but I don't think we could handle being stuck out in another winter especially if I'm recovering, we barely managed last year."

The pair continued in a very back-and-forth argument, practically screaming at how irrational the other was being until Shiro finally decided to back off.

Deeply inhaling through his nose, he gave Keith a firm stare. "Alright this is getting us nowhere. Go take a shower and clean yourself up, and we'll talk about this later once we've both calmed down alright?"

With a tired nod, Keith pushed himself up from his seat and began stripping. While he was busy prepping for the shower, Shiro let himself out to give the younger some privacy; the sound of running water could be heard just before he could flop on the bed. Dragging his hands down his face, Shiro's mind was reeling over the situation.

A few minutes of just lying on the bed and hearing nothing but the sound of running water, a thought popped into his mind. Jumping up from bed he moved back to the bathroom, knocking on the door before opening it slightly.

"Keith, are you alright in there?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, just checking." Closing the door, Shiro released a relieved sigh. Keith hasn't fainted in the shower from the blood loss and heat; internally he swore at himself for not considering that to begin with.

Moving away from the bathroom, Shiro grabbed his bag of dinner and chucked it into the microwave and scavenged around for the first aid kit while his meal heated. Searching through all the cupboards and striking out, he returned to the microwave just in time for the shrill beeping indicating his meal was heated and ready.

The sound of the shower ceased as he munched away on soggy chips; he could hear Keith rummaging around through the door. As soon as he took a mouthful of Sprite, a loud shriek came from the bathroom, taking Shiro completely off guard and choked as the soft drink went down the wrong way. When he finally settled, he jumped up and croaked the other's name, ready to rush back in when Keith emerged, wrapped in nothing but a towel, a clean cloth bunched up at his eye in one hand, the first aid kit in the other.

The older visibly relaxed; Keith must have put alcohol on the cloth to try and disinfect his injury judging from the intensely pained face featuring tears welling up in his good eye. Keith moved to sit on the bed, placing the plastic box next to him, and took the cloth away from his eye to examine it. Slightly stained in blood, but it looked like the bleeding had stopped which brought relief to both.

"That really fucking hurt."

Shiro snorted before having a small coughing fit. "I could tell. You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry."

"Don't be, I doubt many people would be willing to disinfect a wound that serious on their own... Let me take another look."

Moving from the table to lean over Keith, Shiro took the cloth again to gently wipe away any dried blood around the now forming scab, earning a few pained hisses at times in which he'd follow with apologies.

After the secondary clean up, Shiro raided the kit for an eye dressing and gauze; succeeding in his search, he proceeded to apply the white patch on Keith's injured eye followed by keeping it in place with gauze wrapped around the younger's head.

"And done." Shiro announced, admittedly impressed with his own work.

With a quiet 'thanks', Keith moved off the bed and made a beeline towards the table to raid the paperbag for his chips and burger. His efforts found successful, he eagerly threw his meal into the microwave.

Retrieving the chair from the bathroom, now seemed like an appropriate time as Keith seemed complacent shoveling his oil soaked chips into his mouth.

"So pickpocketing."

Keith paused from devouring his fries (Shiro never understood how Keith prefered his McDonald's reheated over straight from over the counter, it just made everything disgustingly more greasy) and frowned having to remember todays events "I'm sorry Shiro."

"You promised you wouldn't do that anymore." Shiro pressed.

"I know..."

"Then why did you?"

"I told you, the interview went terribly and I was pissed."

"That's not a good excuse."

Keith scoffed. "Well it happened. Those jackarses made it pretty clear they didn't want me the second I stepped through the door. They were practically throwing insults around in front of me Shiro, they were lucky I decided not to deck them right then and there."

"So you decide to take your anger out by trying to steal from someone, and look where that got you."

"I said I was sorry alright. Fuck!" Keith couldn't stop his voice from cracking as he buried his face in his hands. "I'm trying. I'm honestly trying Shiro, but no one wants me."

Well that was a knife to his chest that instantly began twisting. "I know you are Keith, but you need to keep going." Shiro said gently.

Keith didn't respond, instead he drew his knees up to bury his face into instead; hands now bunching up his long slightly damp hair.

With a sigh Shiro moved from his seat and was once again in front of Keith, hands placed on the younger's shoulders as he tried to give a reassuring squeeze. "Keith."

"...."

"Keith, please look at me."

Keith remained still for a moment before raising his head. In that moment Shiro pressed a kiss to the others forehead.

"I know things are difficult but you need to persist. Remember all the times I got rejected?"

"Yeah..."

"And now I've got 3 different jobs because I kept persevering. The pay stinks for what I do, but at least we can eat every day and can cover the room expenses... I know you want to help support us both and the time will come when you will, you just need to be patient."

"I know Shiro. It just gets hard sometimes." Keith sighed as he reached for more chips.

"I know buddy. Don't stress too much over it for now, you need to rest until we figure out what to do about your eye."

The younger hummed in agreement as he grabbed his drink and gave an obnoxiously loud slurp before focusing on his burger.

Shiro took it as his cue to hit the shower himself; taking note that they would have to do a mini working bee in the bathroom which would be more than just cleaning the blood (he's honestly convinced that the cleaning lady was a myth or some kind of cryptid since Keith isn't sure if he actually saw her or not that one time when the toilet paper was restocked... god saving enough money to find a better place couldn't come soon enough ).

As all showers went, the intention of an in/out wash turned into standing in a trance and contemplating the real questions in life for god only knows before leaving the cramped space to dry off. Returning to the room he was greeted to the sight of Keith, now dressed in boxers and gray shirt, rolling from one side of the bed to the other while grumbling loudly.

Unable to hide his amusement, Shiro snorted, "You alright?"

"No... I can't sleep on my eye side but that's my comfy side." Keith groaned with a pout as he lifted himself to sit up.

Shiro just shook his head as he moved to his side of the bed for his bag to grab his boxers, fully aware that Keith was ogling his butt the second the towel was down and til the satin shorts were on. From there, the older stretched his arms out and flopped onto the mattress, forcing Keith to scootch out of the way with a grunt.

"So while you were in the shower, I've been thinking..." Keith started as he crawled closer.

"Oh no, that's a dangerous thought." Shiro laughed, earning an annoyed growl and a smack to the gut.

"Fuck off. Anyway, I was thinking about worst case scenario with my eye-"

"Look, we can still go to the hospital and make sure it'll be fine."

"I'm not budging on my stance Shiro, we need the money for more important things; but I've been thinking about if worse comes to worse... I think I'll go eye patch over a glass eye."

What??

Shiro sat up and looked at Keith dead in his good eye, absolutely perplexed. "You can't be serious."

"What? I think eye patches look cooler; fake eyes look creepy and I'd probably have to sell an organ to afford one anyway." Keith tried to argue with a shrug.

"Oh my god Keith." Shiro couldn't stop from breathing out, hand returning to his face as he laid back down. "Of all things you could have thought about and bring up in bed..."

"Like you can talk, l'm just preparing for the worst, you always go on about wanting to die."

"For the last time Keith, I'm not suicidal, I just have a morbid sense of humor."

"Sure sure, that's what they all say." Keith teased, as he laid down, head on Shiro's chest and an arm across his abdomen. With a large yawn he closed his eyes as he curled up closer to Shiro, “I'm gonna look like a badarse pirate.”

Shiro let out a hum, stroking Keith's hair as the man on top of him relaxed and eventually drifted off into a hopefully deep slumber. His fingers occasionally grazed the bandages, cruelly reminding him of the current situation at hand.

No matter how they looked at it, Keith's eye isn't going to last, that much was made obvious from the blood and just how deep the would is. This was only going to make things harder on a number of fronts; the eye and scar still needed tending to properly even if its to stitch the eye shut to prevent infections, and the lack of an eye will not do Keith any favours in his job hunting and that's only going to make things more rough for him than it already was.

This last hour and a bit was too much to mentally and emotionally, and it was hard to process how he felt. Angry? Frustrated? Scared? Concerned? As if he'd failed to keep Keith safe? An unholy cocktail of all 5? One thing's for certain, he felt drained.

With an audible exhale, Shiro nuzzled into Keith hair, arms wrapped tightly around the body on top if him and breathed in his scent mixed with cheap shampoo. Keith stirred slightly, a small moan left his lips as he faded back to sleep. A couple more inhales and Shiro couldn't keep his eyes opened much longer and decided it was time to sleep.

As he slept he dreamt of a better life, one with a nice little house they could call their own in a happy quiet town, 2 pet cats running amok playfully, and Keith, staring at him with 2 beautiful blue eyes, was sitting at the dinner table; a large warm homemade meal was waiting for him while Keith happily went on about his day at work before pestering Shiro about his day.

If only that was the life Shiro could provide him.

**Author's Note:**

> I really need to get back into writing... there's always that daunting feeling every time I come back with a story to post after a long period of nothing


End file.
